The Marauders and the Fuddy Duddiness of Professor R J Lupin
by poestheblackcat
Summary: A time travel story. The teenaged Marauders use a time turner to go almost twenty years into the future, just to see what happens. They wreak havoc, of course, and meet some very interesting people, including a certain Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Set briefly in the Marauders' time and during Prisoner of Azkaban.


AN: Hi, I'm new to this fandom, as far as writing goes. Well, new-ish. I posted a drabble here many years ago, but it was tiny, so it barely counts. I got into reading HP fic about three years ago after rediscovering the books and films, and I quickly found that time travel fics, especially ones that feature Remus Lupin (or Teddy) in some way are my favorites. So here we are. An apparently cliché topic, but I wanted to see something like this, and so far I haven't, so I wrote it.

If you've got me on alert because of fic that I've written in other fandoms, I apologize for jumping into a new fandom and ruining that for you. Maybe you'll like this one? *hopeful* But no, I am not really planning on writing fic like mad, like I used to. This particular one has been in the works for about three years, and is my first in about that long.

 **Summary:** A time travel story. The teenaged Marauders use a time turner to go almost twenty years into the future, just to see what happens. They wreak havoc, of course, and meet some very interesting people, including a certain Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Set briefly in the Marauders' time and during _Prisoner of Azkaban._

 **Story notes:** Since most authors of time travel stories include a note about how to differentiate between the same people from different timelines (usually by italicizing or bolding names, which is confusing to me), here's how I do it in this story. Anything that refers to "professor" is obviously the older Remus Lupin that Harry knows in the third book. "Old(er) Remus" and "Lupin" are also the older Remus Lupin. Just plain "Remus" usually means the Marauder-era Remus, and "Moony" can mean either. I try not to make it too confusing. It's more of a context thing here. Also, this story is mostly silly but a little angsty because I apparently can't _not_ be angsty.

Lastly, the readers all know that Peter is the bad guy, not Sirius, but the Lupin from PoA doesn't know that. He thinks of Peter as "poor Peter," and Sirius as "the traitor." His reactions in this story reflect that. Of course, we, the omniscient readers, know better. I tried to make Peter's reactions seem self-serving, and Sirius' be loyal/caring/prankful (it is _too_ a word!).

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. If you see Americanisms where there should be Britishisms, that's because I'm a horrible 'Murican. Let me know where/what it is, and I'll edit it. Thank you!

* * *

 **The Marauders and the Fuddy Duddiness of Professor R. J. Lupin**

Remus sighed as he trudged up the stairs that led to the fifth-year Gryffindor boys' dormitory. His book bag knocked against his leg with every step, making the bruise there from the last full moon flare up painfully.

He opened the door to see his friends on James' bed with their heads bent over something.

Nothing unusual there.

He just hoped that it had nothing to do with him because he was exhausted from all the extra classes he was taking, on top of the usual full moon fatigue.

Unfortunately, this was not to be the case.

"How does it work?" Peter said eagerly.

Sirius grinned, and winked at Remus over his friends' heads. "You just turn this knob here and spin the hourglass like this- "

Remus had never moved so fast in his life, but even so, he just barely managed to hook his hand around the chain that was attached to _his_ time turner before the world around them changed.

The dorm room swirled at a dizzying speed for what seemed like an eternity. The spinning soon slowed down, and they fell apart, catching their breaths. Poor Peter was so disoriented that he fell off of the bed.

Remus panted, blinking rapidly in an attempt to stop his head from spinning.

"What in Merlin's name did you do?!" he exploded at his stupid, idiotic, dunderheaded friends.

James grinned. His hair was sticking up, looking artfully tousled, as if he had just gotten off of his broomstick. "What does it look like? We borrowed your time turner!"

Remus sputtered incoherently. "You borrowed...You...You borrowed..! Time turner! But you _can't..."_

But of course they could. _Of course._ Because they were Marauders, which means that _of course_ they had figured out about the time turner way back in third year when Professor McGonagall had given it to him to use _for classes and school-related activities only_ because he was such an excellent student who wanted to take _all_ the classes that Hogwarts had to offer (and why not? He'll be kicked out sooner or later anyway due to his condition being discovered. Might as well get the most out of his education). Which only meant that Remus had guarded said time turner with Cerberus-like fervor until today, when he had been too tired to notice that he had left it in the dormitory because he didn't have any overlapping classes coming up in his schedule.

"Of course we could!" Sirius crowed.

"Buy _why?!"_ Remus moaned, pulling at his hair with both hands. His agonized gaze landed on a Quidditch poster on the wall. _Wait, hold on…_

"Because it's- " started James.

"Fun!" ended Sirius.

"James," Remus said. His voice was remarkably calm for what he had just noticed, and realized. "Since when are you a fan of the Chudley Cannons?"

James gasped and clutched his heart. "The Cannons?! The _Cannons?!_ Me? Blasphemy!" he cried, "How dare you! Remus! You cruel, traitorous..."

"Uh," said Peter, pointing at the Chudley Cannons poster next to James' bed.

"Gueeaaahhhhh…" said James, goggling at the poster. He then sprang into action, and tore the bright orange poster from the wall and crumpled it into a ball. The Quidditch players on the glossy paper shouted silently up at them in terror and rage.

"Uh," said Peter again, looking at his own bed. Or at least, what he thought was his own bed, which really didn't look like it at all. Where were his candy wrappers, and crumpled bits of parchment and old socks? (Cleanliness and housekeeping had never been his forte.)

They all took a minute to look around at the dorm room that at second glance, didn't look like the room that they had left.

" _Someone stole my bodacious poster!"_ cried Sirius in (dramatic, always dramatic) dismay, waving his arms at the empty space where his poster with bodacious muggle babes should be.

Remus shook himself out of his body-freezing shock. "How many times did you turn the bloody thing, Sirius?!" he shouted, marching over to grab the time turner from Sirius' lax grip. "You set it on _years_ , not hours, you arse-faced bowtruckle!"

Silence.

"Wow, did Moony just curse?" asked James in an awed voice.

Peter squeaked. "Years?"

Remus glared. "Shut up, James! This is serious!" (Of course, if Remus had not been so distressed, he would have thought seriously about using the word "serious" near Sirius.)

"I thought I was Sirius," Sirius drawled with a wicked grin, as he did every time someone gave him the opportunity to use that seriously old joke.

Remus waved a finger in his face. "Shut up, just shut up! How many times?"

Sirius shrugged and said, 'I dunno' with his lips closed. Because, you know, Remus had told him to shut up.

Remus' face turned an interesting shade of red. "I am going to kill you. I really am. Murder you all in your beds, just see if I don't."

Peter frowned, slightly embarrassed to confess even to himself that this version of Very Angry Remus scared him a little. "What about me?"

Remus took a deep breath and visibly tried to calm himself down. "No, not you, Pete," he said, shaking his head, "But those two? Fair game." His mouth pressed into a thin little line, a little like McGonagall's when she was about to issue detention for a month.

James and Sirius looked penitent for a moment before they tilted their head towards each other and exchanged glances out of the corner of their eyes.

"Let's go find out what the date is!" James grinned, taking the Map out and activating it. Sirius whooped at his shoulder.

Remus groaned and held his head in his hand as the two boys rushed out the door, leaving the privacy and safety of the strangers' dorm. Peter scrambled out after them, throwing a nervous glance over his shoulder at Remus.

"Are you coming?"

Remus sighed and counted to ten under his breath. "Yes."

"It's definitely not this year. I haven't seen anyone I recognize," Sirius was saying when he caught up to them outside the common room.

"Or last year,' James agreed. "Next year?"

"Nope," Sirius said, glancing around at a pair of passing students. "Those look like sixth or seventh years, and I don't know them."

Remus growled and then shook his head. Not like he can actually do anything now. Best to let them have their fun, then convince them that they _have_ had their fun, before further convincing them that they need to go back. Because, you know, this could be a rather interesting adventure, _academically_ speaking.

That decided, Remus joined them in bending their heads over the Map, trying to see if they recognized any of the names. Well, some surnames did look familiar, like Bones and Weasley, but the first names didn't look like any they knew. ("Hey look, a _girl_ Weasley!")

They noticed that they were getting some odd looks, so they ducked into an empty hallway to put on James' cloak before continuing their exploring. It was a tight fit, now that they were older and bigger, but they managed it.

On their way around, they invisibly shoved some kid named Draco Malfoy into a broom closet and charmed it so that it couldn't be opened from the inside (nor could his cries be heard), snuck up behind an apparently grown-up but still disgustingly greasy Snape and pulled his dramatically sweeping black robes over his stringy head, and followed a rather excitingly named but impossibly boring kid named Harry Potter into the library where he sat down with a Weasley and a girl named Granger and worked on a Transfiguration essay.

After watching him be terribly boring for half an hour, amidst the squabbling of his two friends ("Harry, you've spelled the incantation wrong throughout the entire essay!" "Leave 'im alone, 'Mione. 'Ey, Harry, wanna play Wizard's chess?" "You're one to talk. Don't you think _you_ should _start_ on your essay, Ronald?"), the Marauders decided that Harry Potter, while he was most awesomely named and even had bright green eyes that James claimed meant that he married Evans in the not-so-distant future, was much less intriguing than the "Remus Lupin" sitting in the Defense Against the Dark Arts office.

"You think that's really _our_ Remus?" Peter asked.

Sirius laughed, "You really think there could be another person named Wolfy McWerewolf howling about out there?" he barked.

"Sssh!" hissed Remus, glancing around their invisible group, just in case anyone heard his terrible, horrible secret. "Even if it is me, we can't go and see him- me. There are rules against that sort of thing! The universe could implode!"

"Besides," beamed James, ignoring Remus' dithering, as usual. "Remus is brilliant. Of course he'd be a professor when he grows up!"

As always, whenever Remus received matter-of-fact, yet heartfelt, praise like that from his friends, he shut up and let them do whatever they wanted.

Still, he regretted his low self-esteem and pushover nature as they cast a silencing spell on their feet and the door to muffle the sound of the creaking hinges. They cracked the door open a sliver to allow them to peep in to make sure that the other Remus Lupin wasn't looking at the door, then shuffled in on silenced feet.

Remus found himself staring at the man at the desk. He was tall and thin, with grey in his sandy brown hair and lines of weariness on his young, gaunt face. He was dressed in shabby robes, as though he hadn't been able to afford new ones in quite some time. There was an aura of loneliness about him, radiating out from his slumped shoulders and the downturned curve of his mouth.

His friends were silent, too. Well, one, for the obvious reason that they didn't want to alert the other Remus, but also because they were stunned that their Remus could look quite so tired and grey and sad. But still, this Remus was most definitely _their_ Remus, the one they knew.

The silence in the room was broken only by the sound of a quill scratching red words on parchment. The other Remus paused in his writing, sighed, and looked up at the door (which they had just closed, silently), then sighed again, before turning his attention back to his papers.

By silent agreement, the boys shuffled in synchronized movements over to the other Remus' desk to peep over his shoulder and see what he was writing.

' _Luna, please see me after class. I have a book that may be of interest to you. I am most impressed with your essay.'_

' _A very good effort, Colin. I am certain that Harry would find hinkypunks just as fascinating as you do.'_

After a couple of minutes of watching the other Remus - Professor Lupin, that is - write helpful and encouraging notes and corrections on his students' papers, the boys were just about starting to get bored and restless again when a familiar, albeit hoarse, voice broke the silence.

"Good afternoon, boys," Professor Lupin said. His voice was deeper and more mature, but definitely their Remus'. "I'm afraid I don't have anything interesting to do for a while until I have these essays graded - and I must have these finished soon - but you're welcome to sit and have a cup of tea and some biscuits while you wait and watch me being frightfully dull. They're chocolate, and rather delicious. I'll like them, I know."

As the boys stared in frozen disbelief, the older man charmed a teapot to pour tea into the five teacups that for some reason were already set out on the edge of the desk and conjured extra chairs, all without looking up from his papers...or using his wand.

The invisibility cloak slipped down, revealing their shocked faces.

"How did you know we were there?" stammered Peter, blinking in surprise. He didn't know that Remus was _that_ powerful. Had he sensed them? And that wordless, wandless magic!

Teenage Remus giggled. "I've lived through it. Obviously," he said, slightly hysterically, not that anyone could blame him. But on the plus side, the universe had not imploded.

"Bloody showoff," muttered Sirius with a pout.

Professor Lupin placidly continued reading a student essay, although an observant observer would have noticed that his hands clenched tightly around Ginny Weasley's essay on hinkypunks at Sirius' voice.

"It is the twelfth of January, 1994, in case you were wondering." He finished marking the paper and put it neatly to the side on top of a stack of other essays. With slow, methodical movements, he folded hands on his desk, finally looking at them with an odd expression, as if he had to steel himself to face them.

Sirius punched Remus' arm, recovering quickly from his bout of envy. "You're a bloody professor. A professor! I knew you'd end up doing something like that! I bet you're a brilliant teacher!" He grinned widely, genuinely proud of his best friend.

Professor Lupin gave them a small, tight smile. "I try," he said, his voice hoarser than before. He looked sadly at them, as if drinking in the sight of them. He said softly, "Look at you. You're all so young."

James smirked. "And you're old."

Offended, Remus elbowed him in the ribs. "Thirty-three isn't old," he defended the professor- himself- his future self. "Besides, that's how old you are in this time, anyway. All of us." He took another bite of biscuit, and agreed that he did like it, very much. "Except for Sirius," he said, with a sly sideways glance, "because he's had his birthday already. _He's_ thirty-four."

No one noticed the older Lupin swallow hard or that his smile faltered briefly.

"Oh, I dunno" Sirius said, smirking now too, "He seems a bit of a fuddy duddy, if you ask me. At least that cardigan is age-appropriate now."

Remus growled. "No one's asking!" he exclaimed, "And _what's_ wrong with my cardigan?"

Peter cut in before Sirius and Remus could get into yet another argument about Remus' horrifyingly middle-aged and earth-toned wardrobe. "So what are the rest of us up to now?"

Sirius jumped in, his attention span as short as ever. "Am I still as handsome as ever? What am I saying? Of course I am. Even if you are a fuddy duddy," he said, trying to get a rise out of this older version of Remus with the same crooked smile as his friend, but with sad, tired eyes that looked too old for his age. _All_ of him looked too old. The accumulated transformations over the years must have been hard on him. He needed to smile more. And Sirius Black was just the person to make him do it.

"Who was that Harry Potter kid?" James said, "Is he my son? Who do I marry? It's Lily, isn't it? I just know it's my perfect Lily-flower."

The professor was silent for a moment, as if thinking of all the ways he could say what he had to say. Just like their Remus. "Harry is your son, James. And I'm glad to say that he takes more after his mother in temperament, although he has your knack for finding trouble. Unlike with you, however, it usually finds him, instead of the other way around." And there was the crooked, fond little smile again.

James grinned. "That's brilliant. I mean…" He blinked. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "It means that you're sometimes an idiot, that's what it means. Obviously, since Lily has more sense than you, Harry's probably less of an idiot than you." He was still miffed at James and Sirius about the time turner.

Lupin smiled. "He's a good boy. You'd be proud of him." There was that sad look again, but he covered it up by sipping his tea. Remus saw, but didn't comment, unsure of what it meant. "Wonderful Quidditch player. He was the youngest Seeker on a house team in a century, you know. Made it onto the team in his first year. You'll be proud of him," he said again.

James cheered, oblivious to the correction in verb tense.

Peter cleared his throat. "Do you still have your 'furry little problem'?" Lupin smiled as he heard the familiar phrase.

Remus sighed. "Of course he does. It's not something that clears up over time, like spots. Right? They…They haven't found a way to cure it?" he asked, hopeful despite his own words.

Lupin shook his head. "No, they haven't, I'm afraid. Though there is a potion that takes the edge off of it now."

"Oh, that's…good, then." Remus had to admit that he was slightly disappointed. You'd think, in almost twenty years, there would be more research development. But then again, lycanthropy wasn't really something many people were eager to have anything to do with.

"So, Old Remus- " started Sirius.

"Please, _don't_ call me that," Lupin interrupted, the cold look strange in those brown eyes that were normally so warm. "As my younger self said, I'm only thirty-three. No need to make me feel older than I really am."

Blinking at the sudden hostility, Remus wondered briefly if the full moon was close.

Sirius shrugged it off. "Anyway, _Professor_ Moony," he said with a charming grin, "what are the rest of us up to now?"

Lupin gave him an odd look, and a resigned sigh. "I can't very well tell you, now, can I? It's up to you to make your own futures, you know."

Peter spoke up, feeling put out. "But Moony gets to know! And you told James about Lily and Harry. Why can't you tell us?" he whined.

The professor smiled at them again with that odd sad look in his eyes. "I just have this advice to you, _children_ ," he said, leaning forward in his chair and quirking a quick smile at the indignant Sirius, who acknowledged the tease back with a wide grin, "It's a cliché saying, I know, but my advice is this: Live life to the fullest. Enjoy your years here, as they'll be the best and the happiest in your lives. Cherish each other. Hogwarts has never seen a closer group of friends than the Marauders." The shadowed look had returned, as if wanting to add something, but keeping it back.

There was a brief silence that was broken by Sirius. "You're right. That is cliché. I would have expected better from you, Professor Moony."

"It's true, though," Lupin said, dropping his gaze to his cup, as if seeing the future, or the past, in it. His shoulders slumped even further. "The war…was not a happy time. There were good times, too, but here, now, you're protected. You can be children. So I suppose that what I'm saying is, have fun while you can. You'll have to grow up soon. Too soon. And go out with a bang in true Marauders fashion!" he added, a grin finally gracing his features. "Minerva's going to hate me for telling you all that, not that she'll ever know you're here."

Jaws dropped. _"Minerva?!"_

Lupin laughed, the years dropping off of his face. "I'm a professor now, remember? There are certain _privileges_ that come with the job, such as being able to call all the professors by their first names."

The boys exchanged eager glances.

"Any ideas for pranks?" Peter asked hopefully.

The oldest Marauder shook his head in mock sorrow. "Sorry, Wormtail, can't give away those secrets. We worked hard on those pranks."

Sirius huffed impatiently. "So what secrets _can_ you tell?"

"What about how I get Lily to marry me?" James asked. "Can you tell me that one, Professor Moony?"

Lupin beckoned James closer as if imparting great wisdom. "Well, I may be just an old fuddy duddy professor," he winked, "but it seems to me that there's one thing you've never tried, Prongs. Just be polite to her. Act like a gentleman and be sincere, and she'll see that you really mean it. And flowers and chocolates always help, too. And definitely no tricks or pranks."

Remus rolled his eyes in spectacular teenage fashion. "That's what I've been saying for _years."_

His older self nodded in agreement. "I know. Trust me, I know. He'll hear us. Eventually." He glanced at his watch, an old, beaten-looking thing. "Well, that's long enough of a chat, I think. I've got an appointment in a short while, so obviously, you all can't be in here. And don't you all have your own lives to get back to? A Potions exam, if I remember correctly. With Slughorn?"

They all groaned. _Potions._

Peter, as always, tried to stall. "Is Snivellus really the Potions professor now?"

Professor Lupin smiled, knowing exactly what he was doing. "He really is. And don't call him that."

Sirius dug his nails in. "Please tell us that you play pranks on him."

Lupin shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I am an adult now, you know. And a fuddy duddy," he said with some satisfaction at being able to throw the words back at him.

"Old you is boring, Moony!" moaned Sirius, in a seriously dramatic fashion.

Remus stuck his nose up in the air. "He's mature, that's all. Hopefully you lot are as well."

He was rewarded with a chorus of "No way!" "Never!" and "As if!"

Professor Lupin clapped his hands. "Alright then, off you go. Back to your own time," he said, sounding exactly like a teacher.

Remus pulled out his time turner to get them back to 1975, only for his older self to stop him.

"Not here," he said, "We don't want you to get caught by Professor…Bones, was it? Fifth year?" The boys nodded. "Try it in the secret passage near the Grand Staircase by the portrait of Circe. It'll be empty in both times."

There was another chorus of Marauder voices as they disappeared under the cloak. "Thanks, Remus" "Thanks Moony! Good seeing you!" "See ya, Professor Furball!"

Professor Lupin flicked his wand, and Sirius' trousers fell down before he could catch them.

"Hey!" Sirius cried, tripping and falling out from under the cloak.

"Boring, you said?" smirked Lupin with a raised eyebrow.

James laughed uproariously. "Always a Marauder, eh, Moony? The little hearts on the lacy knickers are a nice touch. Good look for you, Padfoot!"

They all filed out, still in good spirits, except for Remus who looked troubled.

He stopped at the door and looked back. "Professor? I mean Rem-…Lu-…Are you- Are you okay?"

Lupin's smile froze a little, the pained look evident in his eyes for a moment before he recovered. "Yes, I am," he said pleasantly, "Why do you ask?"

Remus frowned and shook his head. "You don't seem like you are."

Lupin paused and took a deep breath. "Listen, Remus." He stood up and put his hands on the desk, leaning, pushing against the smooth, dark wood. Grey locks of hair fell into eyes that were unable to meet Remus', casting them in shadow. He took another shaky breath. "The years ahead will be hard- "

"The full moons?"

"Yes, the transformations, but also…" Lupin trailed off, as if thinking. "Don't lose hope," he said, his voice cracking. Then he looked up, straight into his younger self's eyes. "Life will be hard, very hard, but don't lose hope. You are _strong,_ Remus. Stronger than others may think. Stronger than _you_ think you are."

Remus furrowed his brows, thinking, realization dawning... "We're not friends in the future, are we? The Marauders."

"Be wary of trusting too much." Lupin said grimly, and hung his head again. His hands curled into fists so tightly that the knuckles turned white. "Merlin, what am I saying?" he said, straightening up and tugging at his hair in a gesture that Remus recognized in himself. "Can't change what happened. Just…cherish each moment you have with them."

Remus had been scared to ask what had happened to make his future self look so old and tired and _sad._ He understood the look in his eyes now. Grief. The gnawing in his stomach grew. He whispered, "Who dies?"

"I can't tell you that!" Lupin cried out, nearly in tears. He looked at the boy in front of him, shaking, shuddering. "I can't."

Remus' breath caught in his throat. He couldn't think. Who? Which one of his friends? _No._ "I can stop it."

Lupin rocked forward and back on his heels, tugging at the sleeves of his old tweed robes. "No, you can't. That's not how time travel works. We _know_ that. Just enjoy your time here. Fight the hardest you can against Voldemort. Love your friends," he finished softly, entreatingly.

Remus swallowed hard. "I will, sir."

His older self raised his eyebrow. "Sir?"

Remus shrugged, and tried to forget the last five minutes. "You are a professor now. Congratulations on that, by the way. I'm glad I've got that to look forward to, at least." He managed a shaky smile and received an equally shaky one back.

"I do love being back here," Lupin sighed, glancing out the window at the dark, snow-covered landscape. "And you've got so many more good things to look forward to. Harry's birth is a particularly good example. Just you see. It's not all bad. I've just always been a pessimistic sort of fellow, that's all."

"Don't I know it," the teen quipped, and the two Remuses shared a grin.

The older Remus held out the plate of chocolate biscuits. "Here, take the rest of the biscuits for the trip back. Oh, and Remus," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "Don't forget to charm that time turner so that certain _irresponsible people_ can't get their paws and hooves on it again."

Remus laughed as he filled his pockets. "I definitely won't forget. Knowing them, they'll _accidentally_ go back too far and prevent Hogwarts from being built."

"They would," the professor agreed with a wistful look on his face, as if remembering old times, "They really would."

"Well," Remus cleared his throat, "I'd better go make sure that they're not getting into more trouble."

The other Remus grinned wolfishly. "Oh, they definitely are. You'll find them teasing Peeves down the hallway to the left. They'll be under the cloak, right next to the suit of armor."

Remus muttered a curse under his breath, shot a guilty look at his counterpart, who merely looked amused, and turned to round up his friends. "Uh, bye, then! I'll see you later!" He halted. "I mean, I'll see younger me later?" he pondered.

"Remus," the professor said, laughing, "For once, stop thinking and go!"

"Do you know how hypocritical that is? Literally! Alright, alright, I'm leaving!" With a wave, he dashed off in search of his wayward friends.

As he closed the door behind him, he heard the older man chuckling, and a quiet, "Was I ever that young?"

Just like the older Remus had said, he found his friends gleefully bombarding Peeves with charmed chalkboard erasers.

He stopped and watched the poltergeist shriek against the invisible attack with a thoughtful look from behind a convenient corner.

"Live life to the fullest. Cherish each moment you have with your friends," he whispered, repeating his older self's advice. "Alright, Professor Lupin, I guess I can do that." He grinned, getting his wand out.

" _Waddiwasi,"_ he said softly, and a stick of chalk flew out of a nearby classroom and shot up Peeves' nose, making the poltergeist howl with fury and fly off down the hallway, the dusty erasers still pounding at him.

Remus walked over to the suit of armor. "Having fun?" he asked what seemed like thin air.

Peter's head appeared out of the opening of the cloak. "How did you know?!"

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Right," Peter said. "Already lived through it."

"Come on," Remus said, "Let's go home. We've got that Potions exam, and we can't afford to miss it."

He turned on his heel and swept away before the wheedling whines of "Come on, Moony!" and "But we just got here!" could start.

"Any longer," he threw over his shoulder, "And I'll start docking points from you. Prefect, you know."

"Abuse of power!" James shouted from behind him, making him grin.

"Or I could just leave you all here."

" _Moooonyyyy!"_

Enjoy life. Yes, he could definitely do that.

. . . . . .

 ** _Meanwhile…_**

Professor R. J. Lupin took a thoughtful sip of his tea and hoped that he'd done as well as his future self had done in his past (from his past self's point of view, when he had _been_ his past self). It was all rather confusing, and he wished that he had taken his future self's advice, and wondered vaguely if his past self would take his present self's words to heart.

He sighed and resigned himself to the fact that no, he wouldn't. Not really. Not that he could, without knowing about everything that would happen. He'd always be looking for whatever it was that had made his future self so old and sad and grey. Poor kid…who used to be him, literally.

He sighed again and set the mug down. He supposed that he had better go and let Draco Malfoy out of that broom closet that the Marauders had shoved him into.

Or maybe not, he thought as he rummaged in his desk drawer and emerged victorious with a new packet of his favorite chocolate biscuits. Tea and biscuits first, then the rescuing of the little blond sh-…Slytherin.

. . . . . .

* * *

 **Story notes:** There's a video on YouTube called " Interview" (I know, what's up with the title? Anyway…) that has David Thewlis (Lupin) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) talking about Lupin's "fuddy duddy" cardigan and Harry emulating Lupin in the fifth movie by wearing a cardigan. Cute little interview. :)

Also, Lupin has a briefcase with "Professor R. J. Lupin" on it because his friends knew that he would need it someday. *insert tears* And umm, did Ron's Chudley Cannons poster get destroyed? Uhhhhh...

 **Plot hole alert:** Peter Pettigrew, aka Scabbers, is on the map, but they miss his name. Like you caught that…right? Don't tell me if you did. Maybe…Scabbers just ran off the school grounds for a while? Yeah. That's it. And Harry was doing homework, so he didn't see them running around on his version of the map. If you see any more plot holes, please let me know, and I'll see if I can rework around it.


End file.
